Vaughn Palmer: Liberal delegates kill ‘mean-spirited’ motion that would allow teachers to opt out of BCTF

Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer

Photograph by: Diana Nethercott
, Special to The Sun

VICTORIA — One of the few spirited debates at the B.C. Liberal convention revolved around a motion targeting the public sector union that has given the party the most trouble, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation.

“Remove the requirement for teachers who teach in public schools to belong to the BCTF,” urged the motion, adding that “the goal is to allow them to exercise choice in this matter in recognition of their professionalism.”

The measure was one of a trio aimed at curbing the power of public sector unions.

All three were given a high priority by delegates, who voted on the order in which some 63 proposed motions should be called for debate Saturday morning during the convention’s single, two-and-a-half- hour policy plenary.

The first of the trio called for detailed financial disclosure from public sector unions. The second proposed limiting their ability to use compulsory dues for political purposes. Both passed handily with little opposition or debate.

That appeared to clear the way for passage of the roughest of the bunch, the proposal to allow teachers to opt out of the BCTF, effectively breaking the closed shop in the public schools.

But when the measure rose to the top of the order paper, a debate arose that was strongly against the merits of the motion. One delegate saw it as a “mean-spirited attempt to legislate against groups that oppose us.”

Another feared that passage would be interpreted as more evidence that “the government hates teachers,” and used accordingly as a rallying point by the union.

“This resolution fixes nothing,” said another. “We’re going to pour gasoline on the fire with this one.”

Graham Bruce, labour minister in the first term of Liberal government, pointed out to delegates that passage would be hostile to the spirit of Premier Christy Clark’s drive to establish a new bargaining relationship with the teachers. “Don’t tie the hands or thought processes of the premier,” he cautioned.

Table the motion? The delegates voted down that option, 169 votes to 113, preferring to kill it outright. Straightaway they did, by an overwhelming margin.

The convention’s sudden tack to the middle of the road had the wags at the press table joking about possible headlines. “Convention balks at pouring gas on fire.” “Liberals vote to free premier’s hands, thoughts.” And so on.

Still the Liberals provided ample provocation to the public sector unions with those two other motions, both crafted by the local constituency association for Nechako Lakes.

The first called on the provincial government “to enact legislation requiring the disclosure of public sector unions’ annual financial reports ... with the objective of increasing transparency and accountability within labour unions.”

The goal, a deliberate echo of a bill put before the federal Parliament by Surrey MP Russ Hiebert, being to force the disclosure of union expenditures on “salaries, political activities, and lobbying.”

The followup urged the government “to enact legislation prohibiting public sector unions from using union money for any political purposes.”

The object being to confine the use of mandatory dues to bargaining, arbitration and other purposes related to representing union members in the workplace, according to John Rustad, Liberal MLA for Nechako Lakes and author of a similar measure tabled as a private member’s bill in the last legislature session.

Speaking strongly in support was Phil Hochstein, outspoken leader of the resolutely non-union Independent Contractors and Businesses Association. The move would allow the “individual rights” of teachers to trump the “collective rights” of the union, as he saw it.

Lest there be any doubt about the broader purpose, that was evident from the preamble to the motion.

“Public sector unions in B.C. have too much power,” it declared. “They are too preoccupied with setting public policy which is not in the public’s best interest.”

As a case in point, the motion went on to cite the conduct of the BCTF, in “taking an outspoken stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict” and in advancing “myths about class sizes and student learning in public schools, relying on unproven research that has proved to be inaccurate.”

Not that the Liberals are obsessive about the BCTF or anything.

The two motions, as noted above, passed handily and will now be packaged up by the party (along with others passed at the convention) and forwarded to the government for consideration.

“We’ll look at them for practicality,” explained cabinet minister Pat Bell, whose bailiwick includes labour. “Is it legal? Clearly we’ll need to check the constitutionality and the state of case law.”

Presuming they pass muster in legal and constitutional terms, the options would be threefold. Do nothing. Translate them into legislation in time for the brief pre-election session of the legislature. Or “put something in our policy platform if that was the type of thing that we wanted to take forward.”

Even if Bell and his colleagues opt for the back-burner, organized labour will likely play this for its own political purposes, warning that those union-weakening moves could be brought back in the first throne speech of a re-elected B.C. Liberal government.

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